Susan Boyle could sing for the Pope

Church leaders have said they wanted TV talent show star Susan Boyle to sing
for the Pope during his visit to Britain.

Susan Boyle is expected to be asked to sing when the Pope visits GlasgowPhoto: UNIVERSAL NEWS AND SPORT

7:00AM BST 26 Apr 2010

Boyle was catapulted from obscurity to global fame after appearing on last year's Britain's Got Talent contest on ITV1.

Today, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said the singer would be a ''great asset'' to the events planned for the Pontiff's visit in September.

The spokesman said it was hoped a meeting could be held to discuss the Scottish singer's involvement in the public mass scheduled for Bellahouston Park in Glasgow during the Papal visit.

The Catholic Church in Scotland spokesman said: ''She certainly would be a great asset to the programme on the day and we hope to be able to discuss the possibility of her participation soon.''

The spokesman said there was no confirmed agreement with the singer so far and no formal invitation or approach had been made to the star.

It will be the first Papal visit to Britain since 1982, when Pope John Paul II's six-day tour drew huge crowds.

In a historic move, it will also be the first ever official Papal visit to Britain. The 1982 trip was a pastoral one.

Pope Benedict XVI will make his visit between September 16 and 19.

He will be received by the Queen, who is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the Duke of Edinburgh at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on September 16.

His itinerary will also include an address at Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament and the beatification of the 19th century Roman Catholic convert Cardinal John Henry Newman at an open air Mass at Coventry Airport.

The move will bring the revered clergyman, who died in 1890, one step closer to becoming England's first non-martyred saint since the Reformation.

Boyle, a former church worker, became an international star when her performance of I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Miserables stunned the audience and judges on Britain's Got Talent last year. She eventually finished runner-up in the TV talent show.

Her album went straight to number one in the charts and achieved the best first week's sale for a debut.